1.1.5.1. demo.tiki.org

Create a site for new version

1.1.5.2. Pre-dogfood servers

Each Pre-Dogfood Server should be moved from trunk to the next branch and each site should go through at least 30 minutes of manual testing of the most common operations. Ex.: on http://nextdev.tiki.org, someone should try to report a bug, or on http://nextdoc.tiki.org try and add a new page to a structure (even though it all will be overwritten the next day).

/usr/local/bin/refresh-nxt.sh needs to be updated so the next cron switches to the right branch

A couple of days before the release the cronjob to do a full upgrade including DB-sync from live sites must be disabled so that designers and gardeners can test/learn/prepare for the upgrade of the live community sites.

After release the /usr/local/bin/refresh-nxt.sh needs to be changed to trunk again and the full upgrade cron job reenabled.

1.1.5.3. Dogfood release policy

See dogfood for general background info on this policy. The general principle is that most of *.tiki.org sites should be running supported versions before they are released while others will keep running with previous version (LTS).

Goals:

Reduce the number of issues and collective time spent on these. Issues can be bugs, data corruption, upgrade bugs (that you don't see in a fresh install), etc. in released versions.

There is also a promotional goal for this policy as it reassures users that releases have sufficient testing, and it differentiates us from extension-based systems, where the official sites are upgraded to the latest versions a long time after dot zero.

Improve the quality / reliability of .0 releases so we can eventually be in a position to shorten the release cycle. Historically, .0 releases have been shaky and too many people where waiting for .1 and that delays everything.

Keeping some website running old LTS version is useful in case we need to produce and test security patch or any other correction necessary.

The various *.tiki.org sites collectively have a lot of users & data and cover quite a few features. Power users of these sites are usually quite familiar and can spot a bug or regression (something that stopped working) and report it efficiently.

Some sites are kept at the latest stable version (ex.: doc.tiki.org), while others are kept on the Long Term Support (LTS) versions (ex.: profiles.tiki.org). The list is maintained at Domains.

All sites are generally updated daily with minor revisions in each branch. So if a site is running 9.x LTS, it has the latest pre-released 9.x code. Exception: some legacy sites are kept for historical purposes in old unsupported versions, normally in read-only mode.

When a new major version is coming out, each of the sites identified as latest stable are progressively updated to the new version.

Start with the less critical one (ex.: themes.tiki.org)

Do a thorough check on the Pre-Dogfood Server version (each site should go through at least 30 minutes of manual testing of the most common operations. Ex.: on dev.tiki.org, someone should try to report a bug.)

The pre-dogfood servers generally run trunk, but during the pre-upgrade period, they should be switched to the branch

Fix all the bugs and check they are indeed fixed there

Proceed to upgrade (svn switch)

Keep previous version available as a snapshot so users can compare and efficiently report any upgrade issues (ex.: legacydev11.tiki.org)

Give a few days to get feedback for newly uncovered issues

And start over the cycle for each sites.

This whole process typically takes 3-5 weeks because of discovery of new issues and the understandable delay to resolve them. Because of this incompressible time factor, it is important to start the dogfood process as soon as possible in the release process (as soon as all bugs are resolved on the pre-dogfood server)

Finding & fixing an issue while in pre-dogfood avoids wasted time and corrupted data on the real sites. Trying to save time by rushing a release just creates more work down the line.

Keywords

The following is a list of keywords that should serve as hubs for navigation within the Tiki development and should correspond to documentation keywords.

Each feature in Tiki has a wiki page which regroups all the bugs, requests for enhancements, etc. It is somewhat a form of wiki-based project management. You can also express your interest in a feature by adding it to your profile. You can also try out the Dynamic filter.